For the salted caramel:

For the chocolate ganache:

1.5 cups heavy cream

12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1.5 cups)

Instructions

Make the shortbread crust:

Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat again until combined. Add the flour and salt, and mix until a dough has formed. Remove dough from the bowl, form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.

Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Between two sheets of parchment paper, roll out chilled dough to 1/4″ thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or other circular stencil, make 2.5″ circles and press them down into the muffin tin, making sure to press down the bottoms fully into the pan. Stab a fork into the bottom of each mini pie crust. Freeze for 5-10 minutes until dough is fully hardened.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Press a piece of foil over top the pie crusts, and carefully press the foil into each divot of the muffin tin so that its completely covering and touching the dough. Add pie weights, coffee beans or other dry beans into the divots to weigh the foil down. Bake for 30 minutes.

(My mini muffin tin only makes 12 at a time, so I had to repeat this process more than once. While each batch is baking, keep remaining dough in the fridge to keep cold in the meantime.)

Make the salted caramel:

Melt the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking often. Once sugar is completely melted, add the room temperature butter, continuing to whisk (mixture will bubble!). Carefully add the heavy cream and whisk- this will cause a lot of bubbling as well. Once mixture is smooth, remove from heat, and stir in the salt. The caramel will look very liquidy, but it will thicken as it cools. Allow to cool while you make the ganache.

Make the chocolate ganache:

Bring heavy cream just to a boil in a small saucepan. While cream is heating up, place the chocolate in a large, heat-proof bowl. Once cream comes to a boil, immediately pour over the chocolate and stir everything together until it comes together as a rich, beautiful chocolate ganache. Resist the urge to eat the whole bowl right then and there.

Assemble the tartlets:

Carefully spoon a 1/2 tsp of salted caramel into each mini pie crust. Then fill up the rest of the tart with chocolate ganache, being careful not to overflow. Lightly sprinkle with kosher or sea salt over top. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. These can be stored in the fridge for a few days in an air tight container (if you really can control yourself!)